Packed agenda with the most comprehensive coverage of legislative and regulatory challenges and opportunities facing the military resale system

The speakers and agenda for this year’s Congressional Caucus and Public Policy Forum are rapidly falling into place.

Not only will attendees get the latest and best inside information on legislative matters affecting military resale, the agenda is packed with information vital to business planning including Pentagon plans for stationing forces, basing agreements, stock assortment policy, upcoming regulatory and budgetary restrictions and challenges.

It's an event you do not want to miss. All major committees of Congress dealing with National defense are acting on a multitude of issues affecting the resale business. It's a fast moving train, and you want to get on board with the latest information. Top leaders in Congress and the Department of Defense will make presentations and field questions on policy matters. 2013 and 2014 are the most critical years in commissary, exchange and MWR history. Come learn about what's behind the policy and program changes and what you can expect in the years ahead. It is also a great opportunity to express your gratitude to policy makers for their assistance in helping the resale industry navigate the treacherous budgetary and policy waters.

This year's event will also feature special programs on the DoD's Healthy Base Initiative and a special celebration of the ALA's efforts on the part of the White House Joining Forces Initiative for hiring family members and veterans with special guests from the White House, Congress, and other organizations.

Come join your resale agency leaders and your business colleagues for this year's event in room B-339, Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, June 24th. It's an event that will attract many of the key policy and decision makers and will help you develop your business plans for the coming year and well into the future.

The Senate Armed Services Committee completed its work on the fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization Bill and it is great news for military resale programs. The ALA has been focusing on the threatened commissary reductions for the past four years and had anticipated this threat. The collective efforts of the Association have assisted in informing policy makers of the devastating impact that commissary budget reductions and changes to the commissary program would have on patrons.

Specifically, the Senate Armed Services committee added $200 million to the DeCA budget to fully restore a cut by the Pentagon for the fiscal year starting October 1, 2014 and wide ranging legislative proposals that would have seriously damaged the commissary benefit.

The committee included the following language:

"Commissaries have a major positive impact on the quality of life of all servicemembers—active, reserve, and retired—and their families. Commissaries, on average, afford savings of more than 30 percent on items purchased. Additionally, commissary patrons frequently use base exchanges when they come on post to shop at the commissary. Increased usage of the base exchanges results in additional dividends that are returned to the military community for morale, welfare, and recreation activities. The cumulative effect of all of these benefits from commissary patronage is particularly important to junior enlisted servicemembers."

"The committee is concerned that consequences of the Department of Defense proposal to increase costs to patrons of the commissary benefit in order to reduce appropriated fund support for the Defense Commissary Agency have not been fully evaluated, and that other business models that may not have the same detrimental impact were not considered."

The committee directs the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission and to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives, not later than December 1, 2014, that describes: (1) How changes to the financial structure and funding of commissaries would impact the purchasing power of military families, especially young enlisted members and their families; (2) The impact on commissary sales volumes if prices for groceries and other goods rise significantly under a new financial and funding structure; (3) The collateral impact of the Department's proposal on sales volumes in the military exchange system; (4) The impact of lower sales volumes in military exchanges on monetary dividends provided to support the morale, welfare, and recreation programs of the military services; (5) An assessment of adoption by the commissary system of a business model similar to that of the military exchange system; and (6) Other options for consolidation of commissary and exchange system functions. The committee expects the Commission to consider this report as it addresses the commissary benefit in the report that it submits to Congress and to the President."

The committee also included a provision that would amend section 2484 of title 10, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Defense to purchase any commercial item, including brand-name and generic items, for resale in, at, or by commissary stores without using full and open competition procurement procedures.

The Senate committee report also expressed concerns about access to on-base services by enlisted personnel. Specifically, the language said:
"According to the Department of Defense, roughly 83 percent of the active-duty force is comprised of enlisted personnel. Of these, about 95,000 are in grades below E–5. Service policies require most junior enlisted personnel below the grade of E–5 to live on post. The committee recognizes the unique military value of requiring junior enlisted personnel to live on post, including improved unit cohesion, discipline, professional development, and esprit de corps. Many of these members, owing either to service policies, post restrictions, or financial reality, do not have a means of personal transportation other than public transportation. Accordingly, these members may be isolated from commercial amenities and services. The military services provide a wide array of services and programs on post to meet the needs of these members and others who choose to live on post, including dining facilities, health care clinics and treatment facilities, commissaries and exchanges, legal assistance, recreation and leisure opportunities, physical fitness and other morale, welfare, and recreation facilities, and libraries."

"The committee is concerned that some junior enlisted personnel living on post are experiencing difficulties in accessing these services due to various factors such as inconsistent or inadequate hours of operation or lack of transportation. As a result, some members may be forced to forego meals or miss medical appointments simply because the dining facility closed early or transportation was not available to the health clinic on the other side of post. This is a leadership issue that the committee expects commanders to address."

"The committee directs the Comptroller General of the United States to review the provision of services provided on military installations, and the policies and procedures for ensuring that junior enlisted personnel have ready access to those benefits. The committee directs the Comptroller General to provide a report on the results of this review to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives by no later than April 1, 2015."

The Senate Armed Services Committee Bill now moves to the Senate floor. Assuming no amendments on commissaries, the Senate provisions next move to a conference with the House of Representatives. The House Armed Services Committee completed its action on the defense bill earlier in May. The HASC restored $100 million of the DoD planned $200 million cut and directed a study that was reported to you earlier. This will be a conference issue between the House and the Senate. The House Appropriations Committee did the same reduction as the House Armed Services Committee. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to mark-up its bill in early July.

Commissaries safe; percent pay cap, higher RX co-pays likelyRead the Full StoryProgress-Index
In shaping a 2015 defense authorization bill, Congress has decided to protect the prized commissary benefit from the most worrisome budget threat to base grocery stores in decades. But military personnel are not likely to escape other key compensation curbs to include a second consecutive annual pay raise cap in January of one percent versus 1.8 percent needed to match private sector wage growth.

On-base fast food outlets get wage reprieveRead the Full StoryMilitary Times, Karen Jowers
Military fast food fans will benefit from the easing of new Labor Department wage rules that threatened to cause the closure of many such eateries on installations. "We are optimistic that many of our industry partners will be willing to continue providing services under these new terms," said Kathleen Martin, spokeswoman for the Navy Exchange Service Command, which negotiates and oversees contracts for fast food concessionaires on Navy installations.

Senator Durbin: Early July Is 'Goal' for Defense Spending BillRead the Full StoryDefense News, John T. Bennett
U.S. Senate appropriators are aiming to take up their 2015 Pentagon spending measure just after Independence Day, says Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. "First week of July," the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman said as he ducked into an elevator near the Senate chamber. "That's the goal."

Levin: No floor time scheduled yet for 2015 NDAARead the Full StoryDefense News, John T. Bennett
U.S. Senate leaders have yet to schedule floor time for the Armed Services Committee's 2015 Pentagon policy bill as the panel's chairman wants to avoid a sequel to last year's chaotic late-year passage.

Senators question port security after Navy base shootingRead the Full StoryThe Hill, Keith Laing
Senators questioned the security of identification cards imposed by lawmakers for port workers after a Navy base shooting suspect was approved for an ID. The Transportation Security Administration has faced criticism for its oversight of the transportation identification program since the March shooting at a naval station in Norfolk, Virginia.

Patrick B. Nixon
President, American Logistics Association

WASHINGTON UPDATE

More US base consolidations on the way in EuropeStars and StripesRecommendations for more base closures and consolidations in Europe will be submitted to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in a matter of weeks as part of an ongoing effort to shed unneeded facilities on the Continent, according to the Defense Department.

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COALITION UPDATE

Coalition and Valued Associates Advocacy and Actions...

In addition to holding Town Hall meetings across the country to better understand service members and their families' compensations preferences, the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC) announced this week that they will be seeking further input from service members on their preferences. Over the next few months, a number of active-duty, National Guard and reserve service members will receive surveys from the Commission. The survey will ask participants to value individual elements of their compensation package in relation to each other. The Commission also plans to survey retired service members.

Save Our Benefit is encouraging our members to take the survey, leave comments on the MCRMC website, and to let the Commission know how important their commissary benefit is to them and their family. We have shared this information with our valued associates and have encouraged them to share it with their members as well.

The Coalition and our valued associate partners continue to encourage service members and their families to attend town hall meetings, and to share their opinions and concerns with the Commission. As we reported last month, the Commission recently held a town hall meeting at MacDill AFB, Florida and will be holding another one this month at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on 25-26 June. Although many of our valued associates, and the ALA and Coalition have met with the Commission or have been asked to testify, we continue to believe it is extremely important they hear directly from the military community.

According to the American Forces press release on 3 June, the Honorable Alphonso Maldon Jr., MCRMC Chairman, said that understanding service members' compensation preferences is central to the commission’s effort to craft modernization recommendations. Over the past year, he noted, the commission has benefited from meetings with service members, veterans, retirees and their family members. "Additionally," he said, "representatives of the uniformed services, military and veterans' service organizations, and other subject-matter experts have greatly added to our understanding of the breadth of current military compensation and benefit systems. These engagements have reinforced what we've always known: Our people are the strength of our uniformed services."

The ALA and the Coalition continue to message that we support this review and urge delay of any cuts until such time as the report mandated by the House and the review being conducted by the Commission is complete...so that cuts do not take place ahead of DeCA's ability to achieve them without impacting our military families' commissary benefit.

Pest control serviceFederal Business OpportunitiesPest control service at Fort Huachuca Commissary, Arizona. The Period of Performance will be for a base period starting as early as July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015 and will include four one-year option periods that may extend performance through June 30, 2019. This Request for Quote (RFQ) will be issued on/or about May 27, 2014 with a tentative closing date of June 11, 2014. This acquisition is being issued as 100 percent Small Business set-aside.

Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) Time and Attendance System (TAS)Federal Business OpportunitiesThe Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization at Scott AFB intends to issue a solicitation for a time and attendance System for the Defense Commissary Agency on or about June 6th, 2014. The solicitation will not be set-aside for small business concerns. In the following, is the draft solicitation. Please send any questions or comments to the POC indicated in this announcement.

Gazebos, octagonFederal Business OpportunitiesThis Request for Quotation (RFQ) is being issued as a 100 percent small business set-aside for the acquisition of five gazebos, octagon to be delivered (FOB Destination) to the following Defense Commissary Agency stores located at Ft. Irwin, CA; West Point, NY; Meridian NAS, MS; Key West NAS, FL; and Little Rock AFB, AR. A purchase order is contemplated.

Designing spacesGrocery HeadquartersLooks count. In today's world where consumers want it all — an attractive store, clean environment and wide assortments — retailers have increasingly come to accept that if their stores are not up to snuff consumers will simply go elsewhere to shop.

Building workplace safety with rewards and recognitionOccupational Health & SafetyRecognition and reward for a job well done fulfills a basic human need for acknowledgement and affirmation. When we are recognized for our contributions, we naturally engage at a higher level and contribute more. Successful safety managers incorporate the concept of recognition and reward into their safety programs to drive positive safety behavior and ultimately impact financial results.

Senate, House panels reject many Pentagon budget proposalsMilitary TimesThe Senate Armed Services Committee wasn't fond of the Pentagon fiscal 2015 budget proposal, but its members liked it more than their House colleagues did. In their draft of the annual defense authorization bill, Senate committee members rejected Defense Department plans to retire the Air Force's A-10 fleet, drop the aircraft carrier fleet below 11, overhaul the Tricare system and reduce the commissary benefit.

4-5-4 calendar: An explanation of the 53-week yearNational Retail FederationDividing the retail calendar into 52 weeks of seven days each, or 364 days, leaves an extra day each year to be accounted for. As a result, every five to six years a week is added to the fiscal calendar. This anomaly has most recently occurred in FY'00, FY'06 and FY'12, and will occur in FY'17.

On-base fast food outlets get wage reprieveMilitary TimesMilitary fast food fans will benefit from the easing of new Labor Department wage rules that threatened to cause the closure of many such eateries on installations. "We are optimistic that many of our industry partners will be willing to continue providing services under these new terms," said Kathleen Martin, spokeswoman for the Navy Exchange Service Command, which negotiates and oversees contracts for fast food concessionaires on Navy installations.

Adult magazines, periodicals axed from military stores amid falling salesNY Daily NewsPlayboy, Penthouse and other adult-themed magazines will no longer be sold at U.S. Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores — a move described by the stores' operators as a business decision based on falling sales and not a result of recent pressure from anti-pornography activists. The 48 "adult sophisticate" magazines being dropped are among 891 periodicals that will no longer be offered by the exchange service at its stores on U.S. military bases worldwide. Other titles getting the ax include English Garden, SpongeBob Comics, the New York Review of Books and the Saturday Evening Post.

Army & Air Force Exchange Service recognized as a Best for Vets employerPublic Affairs The Army & Air Force Exchange Service announced that it has been selected a Best for Vets employer for 2014 by Military Times. The military publication recognized the Exchange for its commitment to providing job opportunities to veterans, naming it No. 31 among the top 59 employers for veterans. This marks the first time the Exchange has received this recognition.

NEXCOM WCDC-Chino changeThe Navy Exchange West Coast Distribution Center, Chino, California (WCDC Chino) has begun van stuffing support for direct, less-than-container-load (LCL) shipments to Guam. Effective July 31, 2014, the AAFES French Camp facility in Stockton, CA will refuse NEX shipments arriving at their facility. After July 31, 2014, all re-consignment & storage charges associated with the refusal of NEX shipments at AAFES French Camp will be charged back to noncompliant vendors. The current ship to/plan to address for direct, LCL shipments to NEX Guam is:

Navy Exchange West Coast DC
4250 Eucalyptus Ave.
Chino, CA 91710

Note - The most effective method of ensuring you have the current ship to/plan to addresses for Navy Exchange locations is to create respective order releases in NEX TMS. In order to get set up in NEX TMS, please send your request to the NEX Traffic Management Group at NEX_Traffic_Management_Group@nexweb.org.

Exclusive: Amazon Prime to offer music streaming service ...with 6-month-old songsBuzzFeedAmazon, the Internet's largest retailer, is making an aggressive move into the booming and intensely competitive business of streaming music. The company will expand its Prime membership offerings by adding a stockpile of old and newish music for subscribers to stream on demand. The Prime music service, which is scheduled to launch this June or July, will not include recent releases but instead restrict its catalog to songs and albums that are 6 months old and older.

Costco reluctantly searches the Web for younger shoppersBloomberg BusinessweekCostco, ever keen to swell its membership ranks, is grudgingly turning to the Internet in search of more millennials. The big-box shopping club is adding more categories of products to its Web store and has a trial partnership with Google to offer same-day deliveries of Costco wares in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Costco said it has also started selling memberships via discount and flash-sales sites, such as Living Social and Zulilly.

Trader Joe's, Publix, Aldi America's best grocery brandsMediaPostThe latest ranking of America's best-loved supermarkets is just in, and once again, Trader Joe's lands at the top of the heap, followed by Publix, Aldi, Costco, and Hy-Vee. The survey, from Market Force, a Colorado-based market research company, bases its results on responses from some 6,200 adults around the country, who rate their satisfaction with stores by service, assortment and price, as well as the likelihood that they'd recommend it to a friend. It then factors in geographic distribution, to make a level comparison for regional brands.

Census Bureau: Online shopping, mail-order businesses jump 27 percentChain Store AgeOnline shopping is showing rapid growth compared to the rest of the retail trade sector, with the number of establishments growing 27.4 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to new U.S. Census Bureau statistics released today. Drawn from County Business Patterns: 2012, the new data provides the only detailed annual information on the number of establishments, employees and payroll for nearly 1,200 industries at the national, state and county levels.

Macy's to anchor new mall in HawaiiChain Store AgeMacy's announced an agreement for Macy's to anchor the new Ka Makana Ali'i in Kapolei in West O'ahu, Hawaii. Current plans call for the 103,000-square-foot, one-level store to open in mid-2016. Ka Makana Ali'i, a major mixed-use project with more than 100 retail, hotel, dining, entertainment and office components, is a project of DeBartolo Development in partnership with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Target signals bigger mobile innovation push with Digital Advisory CouncilMobile Commerce DailyTarget has created a new Digital Advisory Council consisting of executives from leading companies as it ramps up efforts to create disruptive mobile experiences that bring value to customers. While Target has been active in the mobile space for several years, the council could help insure that top-level executives better grasp the need to invest in mobile and other digital strategies. With such support, Target should be better positioned to more effectively leverage mobile as a differentiator.

Apple buys Beats for $3 billion, tapping tastemakers to regain music mojoThe Wall Street JournalApple Inc. wants to regain the beat in its music business, which is under assault from a stream of upstarts. The tech giant recently said it is buying Beats Electronics LLC for $3 billion to bolster a music business that has lost some of its mojo, as streaming-music services encroached on the downloads dominated by Apple's iTunes service. In Beats, Apple is getting a music-streaming service, high-end headphones and music-industry connections. Beats' co-founders, rap star Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, will join Apple.

Michael Kors' aggressive expansion comes at a costFortune MagazineMichael Kors' North American comparable sales soared last quarter and its profit blew past Wall Street expectations with numbers that would be the envy of any retailer. But behind those figures were signs the aspirational luxury fashion house's growth is coming at the expense of its profit rate. In its relentless drive to squeeze its more established rival Coach, Kors has aggressively expanded, opening 101 of its own stores in the past year and bringing its total fleet to 405.

US consumers languish in the trap of luxuryThe Wall Street JournalCompanies selling goods to affluent Americans mostly have done better than those selling to the less well-off. But there are limits to their success. The years since the recession haven't been good to the lower and middle classes. A household at the top of the bottom fifth by income made $20,599 in 2012, according to the Census Bureau.

Wal-Mart CEO says retailer may consider buying 3-D printer makerBloombergWal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said the world's largest retailer may use 3-D printers for producing supplies and might even make an acquisition in the market. "Three-D printing is interesting to me," said McMillon at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. "We can use 3-D printing over time for replacement parts."

Target to test same-day deliveryMultichannel MerchantTarget will test same-day delivery next month in three markets, the discount department store merchant said May 21 during its first-quarter earnings call. Chief Merchandise and Supply Chain Officer Kathryn Tesija said that following a successful ship-from-store test in Minneapolis, Target plans to launch the same-day delivery pilot program in that market, as well as the Boston and Miami markets.

Target revamping merchandising, bureaucracy post breachBloombergTarget Corp. Interim Chief Executive Officer John Mulligan said that even before December's massive data breach, the retailer had lost its way by becoming too cautious and bureaucratic. The theft of credit-card data for 40 million customers has forced the company to refocus on pleasing shoppers and reconsider everything from how it presents apparel to how it makes decisions, said Mulligan in an interview.

Mars unwraps biggest innovation in Twix brand historyCSP MagazineMars Chocolate North America has introduced Twix Bites, which the company said is the biggest innovation in Twix brand history. Offering the same caramel, crunchy cookie and milk chocolate as a full-size Twix Bar, Twix Bites come unwrapped and are now available nationwide at convenience store, drug, mass, grocery, specialty, value and vending machine locations.

7-Eleven's 16-state sale focuses on SoutheastCSP MagazinePruning locations it said do not fit its retailing profile, 7-Eleven Inc. is selling 75 gas stations and convenience stores, including 31 locations in Florida, 14 in Virginia, six in Massachusetts and Illinois, three in Texas, two in New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Utah and one each in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Retailers divided on Reynolds-Lorillard dealCSP MagazineRecently, Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog speculated that a deal between Reynolds American Inc. and Lorillard Inc. was moving forward, describing the very likely acquisition as "a value creating transaction for both Reynolds and Lorillard shareholders". It is less clear whether such a deal would benefit tobacco retailers.

A busy summer on tap for iced teaCSP MagazineAs consumers shake off the recent long, cold winter, iced-tea makers are primed to make sure the keep cool and hydrated this spring and summer, as illustrated by a bevy of iced-tea-related news to hit the wires this week. The following is a brief digest of what convenience retailers and consumer can expect.

Illinois House rejects sugary drinks taxCSP MagazineA bid to fight obesity through taxing sweetened drinks failed May 27 as an Illinois House committee rejected a plan that would have charged a penny more per ounce on sweetened beverages, making a two-liter bottle of soda cost about 67 cents more than its artificially sweetened, zero-calorie counterpart, reported The Chicago Sun-Times.

Data: Beverage sales rise 4.3 percent as weather warmsCSP MagazineBeverage sales are up 4.3 percent in convenience stores so far during the second quarter, according to a Wells Fargo Securities survey of convenience retailers. The increase "is significantly higher than the retailer expectations of a 1.3 percent increase for Q2 last year," analyst bonnie Herzog wrote in a summary of the survey.

Decadence and differentiationCSP MagazineThe footprint of high-end, craft and natural confection at the annual Sweets & Snacks Expo continues to grow, reflecting the ongoing consumer desire for affordable luxuries. Meanwhile, legacy candy brands had their R&D teams working at full throttle to deliver a wide array of new extensions on perennial favorites in time for the show. All these trends and their reflective products will appear on convenience-store shelves in the year to come.

2-star outlines impending officer, NCO separationsArmy TimesThe Army has flagged nearly 2,500 officers and non-commissioned officers for involuntary separation as its works toward an end-strength of 490,000, and it's eyeing even more cuts in the coming year.

Morale, welfare, recreation customer survey rolls outPeninsula Warrior Does your base fitness center need new equipment? Do you want more recreational traveling opportunities? Do you think there aren't enough recreational opportunities for single service members, or do you think there are too many? You have your chance to make a difference by answering the Defense Department's Morale, Welfare and Recreation Customer Satisfaction Survey, which began arriving in service members' email boxes starting May 14.

Yamada bill move to SenateTimes-HeraldThree assembly bills by Assemblymember Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, passed the Assembly and move on to the Senate, Yamada's office announced. "Our bills focus on leveling the playing field for low-income Californians and strengthening accountability in state institutions," said Yamada in the announcement.

Contractors can't duck head-count fraud claimCourthouse News Service Kellogg, Brown & Root and Halliburton must face claims that they bilked the government by inflating the number of soldiers who used their Iraq facilities in order to boost fees, a federal judge recently ruled.

Obituary: Richard Allen Combs Sr., age 59The CitizenRichard Allen Combs Sr., age 59, of Ellijay, Ga., formerly of Peachtree City, Ga., passed from this life on Sunday, May 25, 2014, at his residence in Ellijay, Ga. Mr. Combs worked in Civil Service for the U.S. Government for over 30 years, and retired as Chief of Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation, Atlantic Region, IMCOM, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.